City of Flint carferry

Just like Flint jobs, Flint boats eventually leave and head for the South.

The City of Flint (see the majestic, if a little wide bottomed, ferry in the photo above) made her last trip out of Ludington at 2:30 a.m. on December 24, 1969, pulled by 2 tugs. She was built in 1929 in Manitowoc, WI by the Manitowoc Ship Building Corporation at a cost of $1,250,00 and had 40 staterooms and 5 parlors. She was powered by two steam turbines driving two General Electric 2,300 volt, 118 r.p.m. motors for a total h.p. of 7,200.

She was sold to Norfolk and Western Railway Company to be converted into a river ferry barge and renamed Roanoke. (See ugly, rusted-out river barge in the photo below.)